Hero for Hire
by PrinceScorpius
Summary: Johns just a regular teen, dealing with a couple bullies and trying to just get through his classes. Suddenly, new kid Dave appears and offers him his assistance for a very simple price. Can John deal with this strange new student? What about the mysterious circumstances behind his sudden move to town?


_**Herp a derpity derp! I hope you guys like this one! It sort of just popped out of the blue and is a little rushed. I tend not to go back and reread what I write so ignore any little grammatical errors! Gamzee and friends are a little ooc too. Anyway! I hope you enjoy!**_

_**x=x=x=x=x==x-x-x-x-x-x= X=x=x=x=x=x=x**_

"Guys not today! Please!"

John Egbert grunted as he was shoved against the wall, two seniors leaning to either side of him. The tallest of the, Gamzee Makara smiled his dark eyeliner making his purple eyes sparkle all the more darkly. Besides him, his partner in crime Sollux merely watched, looking bored and detached as always.

"You did the homework for calculus didn't you?" Gamzee asked sweetly.

"I-I'm not in Calculus though." John sighed, knowing full well that he was just looking for a reason to further this torture. Standing at 5'8 John wasn't the shortest guy around, but he still wasn't to intimidating compared to these guys. Adjusting his glasses, the brunette let a frown slip across his face.

"Funny… I could have sworn you promised me the answers to my cal homework… didn't he Sollux?" Gamzee asked looking at the other bully.

"I seem to recall it, yeah."

"You're brains obviously fried, cause you asked for history not calculus," John responded with a small huff. He may not exactly be strong enough to ward off Gamzee, but that didn't mean he was spine less. "I didn't do either, so you're out of luck. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm late."

Gamzee frowned, he obviously didn't like this answer at all.

"My mother fucking apologies, here let me clear the misunderstanding up!"

x-x-x-x-x-x

"Phew…"

A low whistle caught Johns attention, causing him to look up from his magic book. A blond haired teen about his height was standing next to the table, eyeing him from behind dark sunglasses. John frowned, this kid had to be new he didn't remember seeing him around before. The blond was dressed in a long sleeved red and white shirt with what appeared to be a record on it. He slipped off his bag and sat down at the table, folding his arms.

"What happened to you?" The kid asked. "Get in a slug fest with some one?"

"I got punched, that's all. Uh- Who are you?" He asked quirking a brow.

"Dave Strider, just moved into town. Pleasure to meet you." He said holding his hand out to him.

"John Egbert, same to you." John said smiling softly. "So, er- What brings you to my corner of the lunch yard?"

"You looked lonely, and as the new kid I've got to test the waters with the loners if I have any hope of seeing who's cool and who's going to be total jerkbags." He said with a shrug. "So, who punched you? I'm not hanging out with a juvenile delinquent am I?"

"What? No! I promise!" John said with a soft laugh, fidgeting nervously with his lunch. "No… actually I'm not a loner, I'm just… the local nerd. I got punched cause I didn't do some ones homework and- oh my god, why am I telling you this? I probably just murdered a potential friendship…"

John face palmed, his cheeks heating in his embarrassment.

"Heh, dude. Its fine." Dave said pulling his bag up, pulling out a bottle of apple juice. "You're totally cool."

John smiled and looked up at him. "So, uh… didn't you bring any lunch or something?"

"Oh, nah. I don't have any money and my bro and I haven't gone shopping yet so we didn't have anything for me to bring." Dave responded with a small frown. "I'll just eat when I get home, we're gonna order pizza and then probably shop for food."

John frowned as well, the respond seemed to awkard. Biting his lip he tore his sandwhich in half and put it on a napkin, sliding it over to Dave, along with a couple apple slices.

"Here, consider it a welcome gift." He chuckled. Dave smiled at him.

"Thanks dude, too cool." He said picking up the sandwich. "I'll pay you back."

"Its just a sandwich." John replied, shaking his head eating his own half. Dave fell silent to do the same, sipping the juice occasionally and checking his cellphone.

"So, I got to take off, but I'll catch up with you later Johnny boy." He said, waving at him as he got up. "Take care, and stay out of fights slugger."  
"Later!" John said smiling.

x-x-x-x-x-x

Dave trotted down the steps of the school, heading to the motorcycle parked out front of the school. His brother Dirk 'Bro' Strider sat waiting, his usual pointed glasses resting on the bridge of his nose as he typed a text into his phone. He barely glanced up as Dave swung his leg over the bike, and made himself comfortable.

"You sure it's okay for me to ditch out on the first day?" Dave asked curiously.

"Sure thing little man, I called and excused you for the afternoon." He said with a chuckle. "Please dude, this isn't my first time getting you into a school remember? Besides, I need your help getting the shit into the apartment."

"I don't mind, I had history next anyway." Dave said with a small smile. "So, think this place'll be better than the last?"

"Only time'll tell." Bro responded, kicking the bike into life. "Hows the first day?"

"It was alright, everyones curious about the new kid, but I only really talked to one kid." Dave called over the roar of the bikes engine.

Bro nodded and launched the bike away from the side walk. Dave rested one hand behind him on the seat while the other adjusted his shades. This wasn't the first time they'd had to move, so he wasn't too bothered by the rushed effort to get moved in. Bro started work immediately and the two had to get settled. As their motorcycle rolled to a stop, Dave hopped off and headed directly towards the uhaul that held their stuff. Bro wasn't far behind, quickly unlocking the truck and throwing the door open.

"So what made you decide to do the move now? I thought we were going to do it after your first shift tonight?" Dave said picking up the closest box.

"That was the plan, but my gig got shifted up. I won't be home until three am and I don't think you want to wake up to unpack that late." Bro chuckled.

The brothers worked quickly, getting all the boxes piled in their tiny two bedroom apartment before struggling with the furniture. Bro, during some point had actually ordered the promised pizza he'd mentioned during lunch and was busy paying for it while Dave dug for some cups in the boxes. Pausing as he dug through on in the kitchen, he pulled out his phone. He had forgotten to ask John if he had a cell or anything. Oh well, maybe it'd add an heir of aloof coolness. He'd picked John to hang out with mostly because he was alone therefore less intimidating and partly because he was cute.

"Little man, chows on." Bro announced sitting on the cushion less couch with the box of pizza and two litter of soda. Dave glanced over and opened a couple more boxes before he found their dishes, grabbing a couple cups, he joined his brother. "So, did I already ask how school went."

"Yeah, you did. I said it was alright."

"Ah, alright… make any friends?" He asked, folding his pizza in half before taking a bite.

"Sorta, I met a kid named John Egg-something and he was pretty cool." Dave said with a small smirk. "He looks like Jake weirdly enough."

Bro lurched, choking slightly on his food at the mention of his ex-boyfriend.

"No shit?"

"No shit." Dave confirmed, watching his brother space out, staring at the slice in his hand. It was no secret Dirk still had feelings for Jake, but the break up had been a tad messy and sudden, so Bro had never really gotten the chance to go back and fix things.

"Maybe you can see him sometime, I think I'm gonna try hanging out with him." Dave said with a shrug.

"You think he's cute don't you?" Bro snorted.

"Tsk! Would it matter?" Dave asked, feeling his cheeks heat up a bit.

"You're so transparent dude." Bro chuckled, finishing his slice and moving on to another. "You get a dopey look when you talk about cute guys."

"And you don't? You get this shit eating grin whenever a nice ass walks past you." Dave said shoving his brother slightly. Bro turned and flopped backwards, crushing Dave into the side of the couch as he was turned into a pillow for the shove. "Gah! Fatass off! Bad Bro!"

"Fatass huh?" Bro snorted putting his feet on the other ends arm and pushing to further smush his brother. "Hows this for fat?"

"I'm gonna die!"

x-x-x-x-x-x

John slipped into his room quietly, not wanting to disturb his dad as he went on a cleaning rampage. He dropped his bag and hopped into his computer desk, letting it slide to his keyboard before he stopped his coasting. He wiggled his mouse to pull it out of sleep and quickly logged into pesterchum, checking out who was online before moving on to the other sites he frequented.

After about a half hour of scrolling through magic sites he flipped onto his page, frowning as he noted he had a couple friend requests. He almost got excited thinking one might be the mysterious new kid Dave Strider, but ofcourse. No luck. Just some family members that'd finally figured out that his half brother wasn't the only one on his dads page.

"John! Are you home?"

"Yes Dad!" John yelled, leaning back in his seat.

"I need you to go to the store!" His father yelled.

"Make Captian Spaz do it!" John whined, referring to his grandfather.

"Grandpa's out on a date with Nanna!" His father retorted.

"Old people can date?"  
"Yes John! They can! Now go to the store and get stuff for dinner!" His father laughed.

John sighed and exited out of pesterchum. He grabbed his sweater, which looked more like a cape attached to a thick t-shirt and headed out to meet his father. He held his hand out and made a grabby motion.

"I'm going to need to be paid up front for this job sir." He said with the best serious tone he could muster.

"Half now, half later. Just get the job done with no funny business alright skippy?" His dad responded in the same manner.

"Daaaad!" John whined. "It's the mobster that says 'skippy'!"

"Just go!" Mr. Egbert laughed, shooing his son with a wave of his hand. John chuckled and accepted the mans bank card, trotting out the door and towards the store.

John hummed, looking around as he walked, enjoying the peaceful moment. He knew this whole town like the back of his hand. It was three blocks from his house to the store, and along the way he passed a book store, a gym and a pizza place that was ironically placed across the street before he wandered into another neighborhood, walking past the old worn out apartment complex. He hadn't made it half way through the store parking lot when he felt an arm sling around his waist and jerk him to the side. John grunted as his back made contact with the fence. Gamzee leaning over him with a grin.

"Hey there motherfucker!" He said as though greeting a friend. "Where you headed?"

"My dad sent me on a errand, let me go." John huffed shoving him away.

Gamzee frowned and shoved him back into the fence, grabbing his shirt to keep him there. John was about to knee the older boy when a hand grabbed him and pulled him away.

"Whats going on here?"

John looked up, surprised to see Dave scowling at the older male.

"Run along new kid, John and I are just having a mother fucking conversation." Gamzee said cooly, sneering at him.

"No you're not. You're done here, infact, you're done with him. If I see you bothering him again, I'll be the one having a conversation with you." Dave said calmly, his voice edged with

"Who the hell are you? His boyfriend?"

"No dude, if he was my boyfriend you'd be dead already for touching him, no introduction needed." Dave laughed. "No one touches whats mine."

Both John and Gamzee's jaws dropped at that proclamation. John blushed a bit as Gamzee backed up, mumbling something about 'fags'. He turned sharply and swung at Dave. The blond side stepped, grabbing his wrist as his fist passed by him. He braced the arm and swung his knee up catching Gamzee hard in the stomach, letting him crumple.

"Learn to fight bro." Dave snorted before looking at John. "You okay Egbert?"

"Y-yeah… That was awesome!" John exclaimed, grinning. "Can you teach me to do that?"

"Heh, probably not… my bro doesn't like me teaching others our moves. Sorta a 'gotta be one of us' things." Dave shrugged. "Now come on, before clown face regains his breath."

John hopped over Gamzee trotting after Dave.

"Where you headed?" Dave asked, following Johns lead towards the store.

"I gotta pick up some stuff for dinner… but really Dave, thanks for saving me!" John chuckled.

"Eh, no problem." Dave shrugged. "I had nothing better to do and I was going to say hi when I saw you walk past my apartment anyway. I didn't expect to walk up on that…"

"Yeah, Gamzee likes to pick fights a lot…" John sighed, pausing as he thought back on what Dave had said. "So… are you… you know-"

"Gay? Yeah. Why is that a problem?" Dave asked glancing at him from behind his shades.

"No! Not at all! I was just curious after the whole exchange with Gamzee." John said blushing a bit. "I'm really open to gay guys, my half brothers openly gay and so are a couple guys at school… want me to point out whose single tomorrow?"

Dave laughed and shook his head.

"Nah! I'm fine. I sorta like to let love find me." He said smiling at John.

"Fair enough." John chuckled.

"So do you always let that guy push you around?" He asked curiously.

"No, I tell him off a lot, but it just seems to urge him on." John sighed, shaking his head. "I don't know what to do."

"Well… I could help you out. I'm like a black belt with out the official degree dude. My bro's been teaching me to fight sense I knew how read." Dave offered.

"No! I couldn't let you do that." John laughed.

"Why not, I'd be like a body guard…"

"Because I'd feel like I'd need to pay you back." John responded as he lead Dave into the store and to the isles his father had listed.

"You can…" Dave responded evenly. "Go out with me on a date and we'll call it even."

"What!?"

x-x-x

Thoughts?


End file.
